Anything For You
by siriuslymaddie
Summary: Upon meeting a stranger at an outing with the 5-0 team, neither Steve nor Danny could ever fathom how much this stranger could change their lives and possibly ruin their relationship forever, personally targetting Danny and all he holds dear. Slash.
1. Attention

One | Attention

Steve had never realised how fun Danny could be after getting a few drinks into him. _Proper _drinks, not that one, buddy sort of drink. He was joking, laughing and turned the sniping at Steve to flirting. ...Well, sniping with a less harsh tone, at least.

"All right, another toast to a job well done! Here, here!" Chin toasted, raising a glass from the new round of drinks the team had just ordered. The team were at a local bar celebrating the success of shutting down a large drug ring that was run by one of the most notorious gangs on the island, _The Lionas_. They successfully managed to arrest the criminals at the scene, taking off the street what they thought was the whole gang.

"Here, here!" jeered Steve and Danny.

Danny downed the drink and ran his hands through his hair, his smile never leaving his face. He had been grinning the whole night and so had Steve, just seeing the smile on his partner's face. That and it was entertaining him for the information and secret confessions he could get out of Danny now that he was nearing proper drunk.

"Having fun?" Steve asked as he leaned his face in his hand, his arm resting on the bar.

Danny turned to look at him and grinned, "Yeah, this is...this is fun. Well, it's a nice change _and_ there's no chance of you getting me shot, which is great!"

"Oh, come on, you make it sound like I _intend_ to do that."

"You know, sometimes I wonder."

Steve rolled his eyes, smirking. "So, Danno-,"

"What have I told you about that?" Danny asked, raising his hand.

"...That you like it?"

Danny laughed. "That's right, so you don't have to stop it."

Steve laughed, hiding his face on his arm. He _definitely _liked drunk Danny.

"Can I just say that you're really much more...enjoyable, drunk?" Steve said, slightly wary of even drunk Danny's response.

Danny looked at him. "Are you trying to say that I'm not enjoyable sober? After everything we've been through, I thought you'd love me just that little bit more." Suddenly, Danny's eyes turned sad. Wide and puppy-like.

"Wh—Danno – I didn't mean-,"

"No, no, no. I know what you t-think of me-," And the slurring had begun, "Y-you think that I'm frigid and uptight and I have a daughter and I don't like the w-water or surfing...or throwing guys into shark cages..."

Steve started to smile again. "I don't 'think' that you have a daughter or that you don't like the water...you do have a daughter and you _don't_ like the water, so..."

Danny waved a hand. "Psh, that's all just pointless specifics. I like the water!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I like drinking it. I like showering in it...I like hoping that you'll drown in it when you try to drag me _in it_...see? I don't hate the w-water," he hiccoughed.

Steve laughed and shook his head. "You're such a drama queen."

Danny grinned and swigged another shot and slammed the shot glass back onto the bar. A small trickle of the alcohol slid down the side of Danny's mouth and he didn't seem to notice.

Steve smirked and said, "Stop, Danno..." He lifted his arm and lightly wiped away the droplet and smiled his hand still on Danny's cheek.

Danny looked at Steve, not shocked or surprised, but just _looked_. His eyes were glossy and he was finally silent for once.

"Are you all right, Danno?" Steve asked. He slightly feared that he had made him completely sober up by bringing him back to his senses by doing what he just did and that Danny was about to react and leave, making things awkward between them.

Danny nodded, a small smile cracking across his lips. Steve's hand fell from Danny's face and Steve automatically regretted moving it away. It surprised him more than anything that Danny didn't have anything to say about it which, in his opinion, was better than worse since he didn't seem to object at all. Steve himself didn't even know where it came from. His hand just acted on its own.

"Aww, that's so cute!" Chin said loudly behind Steve, as Steve had his back to him and Kono as he faced Danny.

"They're in love!" cooed Kono.

Steve and Danny laughed nervously, Steve's cheeks reddening, as they tried to ignore it as if nothing had happened. They had completely forgotten that they weren't alone in the bar and that there were other people around them. It often happened to Steve and Danny – they often became so wrapped up in what the other was saying and each other, basically, that they failed to realised the world outside of their partnership.

"Can we have another round?" Chin asked.

Steve raised a hand and looked at Danny. "Wait, Danno, don't you-,"

"Are we celebrating gentlemen? The next round is on me, I could do with a bit of a drink myself," said a man in a suit, sitting down on the chair next to Danny at the bar. He had on a suit and definitely didn't look native. He looked like he was there on business.

The team eyed him and Chin was more than happy to let him take the tab this time. Kono and Chin glanced at each other, grinning, whereas Danny and Steve stared at him.

Danny then grinned and turned to Steve, "Look! He's in Hawaii and he's wearing a tie!"

Steve gave a short nod, a fake smile for Danny, only, already feeling slightly jealous at the fact that someone else was about to take the attention that Danny was paying to him, away.

Danny turned back to the man and extended his hand, "Detective Danny Williams."

"Detective?" said the man, looking impressed. "I didn't realise I was drinking with the law – I'll take a cab back to my hotel, I promise," he quipped.

Danny laughed, "Well I'm off duty, but you know...that's probably a good idea."

The man grinned and they had to admit that he was handsome. He was clean-shaven and had light auburn hair. He had bright green eyes and looked more like a Brazilian model than he did a businessman.

They got their drinks and Danny took a sip of his, his back now turned to Steve. Steve wasn't very fond of this new arrangement.

"So are you here on business?" Danny asked. He liked the fact that he wasn't the outsider for once and had someone to compare himself to.

"Yeah," the man nodded. "I was here to close up a business deal but the meeting was...unfortunately cancelled."

"Ah, well how long are you staying?"

"Not very, my flight is supposed to leave tomorrow morning and I've only been doing business since I got here. I decided to treat myself at least a little bit."

"Well this place definitely has the best drinks, I can tell you that. And what was your name? I, uhh, didn't catch it."

"That's because I didn't give it," the man chuckled. "And besides, if I told you, then I'd have to kill you."

Danny laughed and Steve rolled his eyes, groaning audibly as he left the bar.

"Hey, where are you going?" Danny asked as he noticed his partner leaving.

"I'm going to the bathroom; would you like to come, Danno?" It was beyond obvious that he was annoyed. Steve, like Danny, didn't do too well when ignored.

"Hey, what's your problem? Just go, I was only asking." Danny shook his head and pulled his attention away from Steve again and back to the man that he happily thought that he could relate to, for however short period of a time before the night was over.

Steve went to the bathroom but he didn't actually need to go. He lingered in there and after a few men started noticing him just standing there, leaning against the wall next to the hot air blower, he decided that he might as well look like he was doing something, so he washed his hands at an incredibly slow pace.

He didn't want to go back out there to see his best friend and partner _flirting_ with some other random guy. It was usually in Danny's nature to be jealous of Steve's friends but Steve half-heartedly accepted that this was one of the consequences that came with getting Danny so damned drunk and happy. That and Danny had found someone that he could relate to, he knew how homesick he was recently. Steve wished that he could do more but he couldn't considering the fact that Danny was the outsidernow. He hadn't been one since his family made the move when he was a kid.

"You know, just because we're surrounded by water, doesn't mean that you have to waste it all," came a calm voice from next to Steve.

He turned to see Chin standing there, grinning at him in the reflection of the mirror.

"Oh, hey," Steve smiled. He turned off the water and flicked his fingers into the basin, shaking his hands to dry them.

"So what are you doing in here for so long? Because I'm sure that had you something important to do, you wouldn't have been washing your hands for over five minutes."

"Chin, how long have you been watching? Are you trying to creep me out with this new stalker identity?" Steve laughed.

Chin grinned and shook his head. "I just came to check on you. That and Danny's getting pretty drunk out there. I think it's time that someone took the glass away from him so that we could get him home. And you've been in here for about twenty minutes so..."

"Why can't you or Kono get him out of here? I don't like the look of the guy that he's sitting with."

"Yeah, that, too," Chin said. "He's pretty chummy with that guy and Danny doesn't seem to be paying attention to how many drinks he's downing. And trust me, if you thought he was drunk _before_, you should go and see him now."

"Yeah, that's one of the reasons I don't want to go out there," Steve mumbled.

"Aw, jealous are we?" Chin teased.

There was a knock on the door of the men's room. "Guys, can you please get out here before I have to bust in there pretending to be on a raid? You two left me with them out there and I look like a loner," came Kono's voice from outside the door.

Chin laughed and exited the men's room, "What's happening, young one?" he asked his cousin.

Kono ran her hand through her thick, dark hair and sighed, putting her hands on her hips as she looked back over to Danny and Mr. Nameless.

"He's getting just slightly _too_ drunk," she said. "I enjoy drunk Danny as much as the next person but tomorrow's Saturday. Doesn't he have Gracie tomorrow?"

"I tried telling him that," Steve said. "But Mr. Mysterious over there interrupted and I suddenly became invisible."

"Aw," Kono cooed, patting him on the cheek. "Then go and get your partner away from that _haole _and get him home."

Steve sighed. "You guys heading off?"

"Yeah, boss," said Chin, "Take care, eh." Chin and Kono left Steve standing in the small hallway that led to the bathrooms, watching Danny and the man who still remained nameless to him laugh and talk with Danny. They started singing at one point – that was when Steve decided to intervene. Neither men could sing and people around were starting to stare.

"Danno, it's time for us to go," Steve said, cutting in and stepping in between the two, pushing the nameless man back.

"Wh—why? We were just s-starting to h-have fun!" Danny slurred.

"Danno, come on. Stop fooling around," Steve said, placing his hands firmly on Danny's arms, steadying the man who had begun to teeter to the side. He turned to the man and said, "Sorry, to interrupt your little party but we have to get going. Early day tomorrow."

The man didn't look bothered to let them go. "That's fine."

Steve narrowed his eyes at him for a moment, wondering why he wasn't slurring or didn't look very drunk, but was pulled out of his reverie when Danny grabbed his arms and turned Steve around again. "B-but we were just starting to have fuuuuun!" He was whispering to Steve as if it was a secret. Steve had to lean down to hear everything he was saying because not only was Danny slurring, but he was also whispering now as if he were a child. His eyes were wide and glossy and he was _pouting_. Steve couldn't believe it.

"Lieutenant Majorrrr Doctor Commander S-Sergeant and whatever else y-you are Steve Mc-McGarrett, have another drink, I wanna s-stay and we can just stay out a little bit longer, we've worked s-so hard and, pleaseeeeeee?"

Steve rolled his eyes and turned to the man, "Congratulations on getting him as hammered as possible. He has a kid that he has to get to, you know?"

"Hey, he was more than happy to have as many drinks as I offered, not my problem-,"

Danny gasped loudly, "Gracie! I forgot about her! W-Where is she now?"

"Danno, she's fine, she's with her mother, now come on, you have her tomorrow. You don't want her coming home to a drunk or hung over Dad, let's go. Danno come on."

Danny yanked his arm away from Steve and got up himself but teetered and almost fell over. "I can do it!" he insisted angrily, saying it slightly too loudly, making the noise of the bar quieten down slightly.

He heard the guy that Danny was having so much fun with snort, trying to suppress laughter.

Steve spun around. "You think is funny?" He grabbed the man's shirt by the collar, his fist wrapped up in the material.

The man put his drink down calmly and said, avoiding Steve's eyes, "Let go of me."

"Yeah? Or what?"

"You don't want to know," he threatened darkly.

"Yeah? Try me."

The man stood up and matched Steve's height, looking at him eye to eye. Steve could feel the anger pulsing and bubbling in his veins, his adrenaline beginning to spike.

Danny grabbed Steve's hand and Steve's heart felt as if it had dropped. He pulled Steve backwards and stepped in between the two men.

"L-Let's get out of here, I don't want either of you k-killin' each other. Come on," he hiccoughed.

"Yeah. Go," said the man.

"You're lucky that you're leaving tomorrow morning," said Steve. "Count your damn blessings that you're leaving tomorrow."

Steve angrily turned around, Danny still holding his hand and trying to pull him out of the bar while swaying from side to side as he walked, muttering something about an earthquake.

Once the two were outside, it was pretty quiet. There was the distant chatter of the bar as they walked further away from it and the gentle crash of the waves onto the shore, but other than that, it was pretty calm and quiet outside. Nothing compared to the loud ambience inside the bar.

Danny pulled his hand away from Steve's, Steve just realising that they had walked out of the bar holding hands. "What w-were you trying to do in there?" asked Danny.

"What was I trying to do? What were _you_ trying to do? Danno, you have _Gracie_ tomorrow. Your _daughter_. How do you think she's going to feel? Seeing her father like this or with a pounding headache early in the morning when she wants to spend time with him?"

"Don't you say a _thing_ about my daughter or our relationship. That's none of your business!" Danny exclaimed, shoving Steve. Steve probably could have pushed him harder and to the floor considering Danny's state, but didn't. Steve was never the one to lose his cool – that was Danny's job. He always watched and listened, often trying as hard as possible to taunt his partner.

Steve sighed and placed his hand on his face, rubbing his temples. "All right, you know what? Whatever, I'm taking you home—are you okay?"

Danny was turned away from him, swaying slightly, his arms folded.

"Danno…"

Danny rubbed his face as he faced the direction of the ocean. Steve went and stood next to him. "Are you all right? You're like a rollercoaster when drunk, seriously. I thought this was a good idea at first…" he mumbled.

Danny didn't seem to have heard anything after 'are you all right?' because he replied, "I'm such a bad f-father."

"What? No you're not. Don't say that. Come on," said Steve, throwing his arm around Danny's shoulder and pulling him towards his torso.

"I a-am," he stammered. "I'm out here, getting drunk, fighting with you…and I have Gracie tomorrow… I'm such an idiot." He shook his head and covered his face.

Steve nudged him and said, "You're a great father. You're just an idiot for fighting with and ignoring me. That, I'm not going to argue."

Danny was silent for a moment but then chuckled slightly and lifted his face out of his hands and folded his arms again, still staring out into the direction of the ocean, Steve's arms still around him. Danny leaned his head back on Steve's arm and eventually onto his chest, Steve pulling him in for a hug and resting the top of his chin onto the shorter man's head.

"Thanks," Danny mumbled into Steve's shirt.

For a moment Danny seemed to have fallen asleep to the sound of the light waves crashing and Steve felt his heart beat more audibly the warmer Danny's presence became on his chest.

"Danno…" Steve whispered after a few minutes.

Danny murmured something incoherent into Steve's shirt but then raised his head and looked his partner in the eye.

"I thought you fell asleep there for a second," Steve chuckled.

"I think I did too…" mumbled Danny. "Steve…" he said, one of the clearest words he had said the whole night. He was looking Steve in the eye, his eyes glossy as if far away but still right there, wrapped up in Steve, both literally and figuratively. Steve looked down at him and glanced at his lips.

Danny didn't seem to be looking away and wasn't planning on it whereas Steve was deliberating his next move. It couldn't hurt, could it? He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on his partner's lips wary. Danny didn't move. It lasted a few moments and when Steve pulled away to look Danny in the eyes for his reaction saw that he had done something right because seconds later, Danny turned around and pulled Steve down again to continue the kiss, now more vigorous and heated. It was passionate and needy, all hints of carefulness disappearing for that moment. There was a clash of teeth and tongues and Steve could taste the sweet taste of alcohol in Danny's mouth, his stomach feeling as if it was doing flips. He didn't remember the last time a kiss had made him feel like this. He certainly didn't feel this excited when he was kissing a woman but then again, he had never kissed a man before.

Maybe it was just Danny.

"We have to—we have to g-get out of this parking lot," Steve gulped when he finally managed to pull away for air.

Danny nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah, let's do that, now. Right n-now."

Steve had no idea how the two had actually managed to get to his place without jumping each other in his car. He also didn't know how he managed to drive straight after the couple of drinks he had had (he wouldn't have done it, usually, if it wasn't of the utmost importance) and the fact that he was getting more and more excited every time he glanced at Danny. It was all a real mystery how nothing happened in his back seat, basically.

The second that Steve's front door was unlocked Danny tackled him and kicked the door shut behind them. Steve threw his keys somewhere in the living room and proceeded to back into his bedroom, connected to Danny the whole way there. Danny began tugging at Steve's shirt, still slightly tipsy and teetering as they walked, but happy. At least he was happy, thought Steve.

Steve pulled away for a second and pulled his shirt off and threw it onto the bedroom floor and then proceeded to unbutton Danny's shirt. He inwardly cursed Danny at actually wearing collared shirts firstly because it was Hawaii and nobody wore collared shirts the same way that nobody wore ties and because it was freaking impossible to get them off quickly and easily when he wanted access to his partner's chest. He ripped the shirt open when he got to the final three buttons and then slid it off his partner's muscular arms, it falling to the floor as if it belonged there and not on Danny's torso.

Steve felt his bed behind the backs of his knees and fell backwards onto it, Danny falling on top of him. A few moments of kissing proved unsatisfactory for Steve as he didn't like to be on the bottom. He flipped Danny over and rested his body on top of his partners and proceeded to hungrily attack his mouth.

Steve then began trailing his lips down the side of Danny's neck as Danny bucked into Steve's hips, moaning.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this…you have no idea how jealous I was of that guy," Steve muttered into Danny's neck, his tone slightly muffled by the flesh and Danny's moaning.

"Mhmmm," Danny moaned.

Danny began unbuckling his pants as he became hard, then pulling at the button of Steve's pants as he continued to work on Danny's neck. With his feet, Danny managed to somehow push down Steve's pants so that they hung around his ankles, Steve now only in his boxers. Steve slowly trailed the palm of his hand down Danny's flat stomach and then into his boxers. Danny gasped and bucked his hips.

They went silent for a moment when Steve stopped.

"W-What is it?" Danny asked, short of breath.

"Are we really going to do this?" he asked. He couldn't believe that he had stopped a moment like that to ask a question as stupid as this was but he didn't want tonight to rebound on him in the morning like he was some sort of monster that took advantage of his partner when he was drunk.

Danny looked at Steve, giving him another one of those glossy-eyed looks and nodded.

Steve felt a smile pull at the edges of his lips and he covered Danny's mouth with his again, the rest of the night filled with passionate pleasure and climactic love, the two partners finally admitting to each other what they felt through the act. Steve had been waiting for this since he had met Danny but despite still being worried about whether or not this was happening purely because they were both intoxicated, he wanted to savour the moment, no matter how long the night lasted and being well aware of the fact that all good things had to come to an end.


	2. Wake Up Call

Two | Wake Up Call

Danny woke up in a strange bed he seemed to vaguely recognise, alone. He had a pounding headache and he was naked, covered barely by the black and white sheets that were ruffled and scrunched up messily. He tried lifting his head but the headache smacked him as if someone had actually punched him in the face then and there.

"Oh, God…" he muttered, covering his face as his head dropped back down onto the pillow. "What the hell happened last night…?" he wondered aloud to himself. He knew that he wasn't at his place but he knew that he was somewhere that he had been before. He hadn't yet opened his eyes completely and seen anything clearly besides the bed since the pain he felt forbade him from doing so.

A few more moments of lying in bed alone, he slowly began to wake up. He then sat up and looked around the room and recognised where he was.

"_Fuck!_" he exclaimed. He looked around to see his clothes strewn around the room, his boxers somewhere all the way on the other side in a corner.

He was naked, in Steve's bed…with a headache. He didn't have to have to be sober to know what had happened the night before. He felt his stomach lurch at the fact that he had actually _gone there_. Danny was usually very closed up with his feelings unless they were anger or annoyance. Love was something that he kept to himself after his divorce and having seemingly expressed it to his partner, someone who was the last person on the Earth he wanted to know; he knew things were going to be different. He didn't even remember how he _got _there, let alone what had happened. For all he knew, it might not have even been consensual!

But then again, it was _Steve _so…_NO._ This was weird! Steve was his partner! All this would do would make things awkward! And he didn't even _remember _it so there was really nothing in it for him.

He leaped out of bed and pulled all of his clothes on and tried flattening his hair which was pointing in every direction. When it proved to be untameable, he snooped around in Steve's bathroom and stole some styling gel…and aspirin.

When he was about to leave, he checked his pockets for his phone. He couldn't find it.

"For Pete's sake, McGarrett…" he swore. He didn't quite know why he was blaming Steve but by God, he wasn't about to stop now. Steve wasn't going to hear the end of this when he saw him. _And he left him alone in his own bed the morning after! What a slut!_

He finally found his phone, after fifteen minutes of searching, somehow tucked in between the wall and the headboard of the bed.

"How the hell did it get there?" he wondered aloud to himself. He checked his phone and found it off. Dead battery.

He felt a nagging on his mind as if he was supposed to remember something. His headache was still there, though slowly starting to recede. He _knew _that there was something that he was supposed to remember but he just couldn't put his finger on it…

He walked past a clock that hung on the wall of Steve's house and saw the time, 10:55.

"_SHIT_!" he swore loudly, sprinting out of the house. He got Grace every other Saturday at exactly eight AM. "I am _so_ screwed," he murmured.

He hurried outside and noticed his car parked in Steve's driveway. He could've sworn, even with the little memory he had of the night before that he didn't get there with his car. The memory was hazy, but he could remember something about Steve's car and constant staring at him as they sped to Steve's place.

If everything else wasn't strange enough, he found the key in the ignition, waiting for him. He turned his car on and reversed out of the driveway trying to get as fast as possible to his place because even though the worst that could really happen would be that his ex took Grace back home, he didn't want to seem like he had been out partying all night or whatever idea his wife would've made up.

He didn't know what he'd expect to find at his place, Grace wouldn't be waiting outside the front door, sitting on the step, but he thought that maybe, just in case, he'd have a chance of redeeming himself.

As he slowed down, driving down the small narrow street towards his small house, he felt his heart begin to thud loudly in his chest. There were three HPD cars outside his house, the lights of the cars still on and there was an ambulance as well as way too much police tape surrounding his house.

"Oh, no…" he murmured. He didn't even know what had happened yet but he could already tell that it wasn't good. He felt his heart almost escape out of his throat when he jumped to the thought that something could have happened to Grace.

He stopped the car and got out when he saw Kono talking to a HPD officer.

"Kono," he said, jogging over to her. "What's happening? What's going on?"

"Danny…your…your ex-wife is inside…uh, I don't know how to tell you but…Gracie was…kidnapped, this morning, when your ex-wife came to drop her off."

Danny's eyes widened and in that moment, his mind completely zoned out. His subconscious completely took over and his body worked automatically as if he were a robot. He couldn't feel anything but at the same time he wanted to throw up. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to automatically come up with ideas on where she could be or how he could get her back but he was drawing at a blank. He had no idea what to do but he knew that he wanted to be angry. That was one thing he was sure of.

"W-w…Where's Steve?" he managed to ask, keeping the vomit down. "Where is he?"

"Inside," Kono told him, slightly intimidated by Danny's domineering tone.

Danny walked past her and past all of the police officers and tape and into his house where he found his ex-wife seated on a spare chair in his small house that couldn't hold a candle to the place that Stanley now gave her and Grace. Rachel was sitting in the chair with her face in her hands with two HPD officers asking her questions and Steve standing there as well, his hands on his hips as he listened, in complete professional mode. He hadn't seen Danny yet.

Danny looked around his small house being torn apart, everything being searched. Everyone was communicating amongst each other but _nobody was telling him anything_. Nobody had bothered to tell him if they had found anything, what had exactly happened – _Steve _hadn't even bothered to wake him up to tell him that his daughter had been kidnapped!

"WHAT IS GOING ON?" he finally shouted after several minutes going by and nobody telling him anything.

Everyone stopped and turned around to take notice of him. Steve looked the most shocked.

"Danny," he said, his voice full of surprise and regret and apology.

"You…" Danny said as he pointed at Steve. He could feel the anger bubbling up within him as if the ultimate betrayal had taken place. And in his mind, it had. Steve used him and then discarded him, not even consulting him on a matter such as this that had to do with Danny more than it had to do with anybody. "I need to talk to you." His voice was shaking.

Steve nodded apprehensively and followed Danny outside. Once they were outside, Danny spun around and punched Steve in the face as hard as he possibly could, the pain searing up through his knuckles and up his arm finally allowing him to _feel_ something.

"I can't _believe _you!" Danny shouted at Steve who was so caught off guard that he fell to the floor. Danny never thought that he'd have enough strength to knock down an ex-Seal, especially someone like Steve.

"My daughter was kidnapped and you didn't even have the decency to call me? You didn't have the common courtesy to let the child's father know that his daughter had been kidnapped? Who on Earth do you think you are?"

Steve had finally begun to get up on his feet. He spat blood into the nearby bush and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, blood seeping from his mouth, a bruise already beginning to appear at the site of the rapid swelling.

"Y-Your phone was off," Steve coughed.

Danny took a step towards him so that his voice was low because he was aware that many officers, including Chin and Kono had stopped to watch the two considering that Danny looked about ready to murder Steve.

"I was at your house," Danny whispered vehemently. "I was _with you_. You _knew_ where I was and you didn't bother to wake me up to tell me what had happened? What, did you think you'd be some sort of hero and find Grace before I woke up and then act like nothing had happened? Is that what you thought? Well you know what, I am _sick_ of you and your macho act because if you didn't know already, acting the way that you do isn't fooling anybody! We all know how weak and broken you really are. You're not strong at all and I'm done with you! So just stay away from me."

"Danno, please-," Steve tried; reaching for Danny as he passed him but Danny spun around and pulled away from his hand.

"_Don't call me that! _And don't touch me." Danny's eyes were alive with a fire that Steve hadn't seen before. He knew how much he loved his daughter and he knew that this was killing him inside now, knowing that some creep out there had his daughter, his daughter – the reason that he was _here_ in Hawaii. According to him, his only reason for everything and now she was gone and if he didn't get her back…Steve had no idea what would happen.

He knew he had to find Grace and get her back to Danny before it was too late. He wouldn't have held it against Danny if he never spoke to him again but he couldn't have it on his conscience that he let his best friend's daughter disappear and never be found again. He couldn't watch anyone go through that. Not Rachel, not Danny. Especially not Danny. He was going to find Grace if it killed him.


	3. Team Work

Three | Team Work

The 5-0 team were, of course, going to be handling the case, putting all of the others aside for this one since it was personal. Danny refused to be anywhere near Steve and Steve was trying to ignore that fact while listening intently to Rachel's story to pick up as many clues and evidence as he could to be able to find Grace as fast as possible.

"I-I brought her here at eight o'clock a-as I always do, and _y-you weren't there_!" Rachel exclaimed in her British accent, glaring at Danny, her eyes filled with tears.

Danny just watched her, for the first time, not arguing back. He couldn't say anything to her because he knew that she was right. He wasn't there to protect her or his daughter and this was the result. He blamed himself but he also blamed Steve due to the fact that he needed someone other than himself to blame for the time being if he wanted to think straight at all on this case. Steve welcomed the blame with open arms just to see his partner suffer that little bit less.

"Just breathe, relax and tell us calmly what happened next. You'll see, we'll have Gracie back in no time," Chin said in his quiet, calm voice to Rachel.

She ran her hand through her hair, clearly very distressed, and continued, "I-I was knocking on the door, Gracie was standing next to me…she said that she forgot something in the car and I told her to go and get it while I tried calling _you_-," Every time she referred to Danny, she said it with such malice and anger that Danny thought he might have to punch something in order not to take it out on anyone else, "—and as I did, I…I heard a car pull up, the tires screeching, and Gracie screamed and by the time…by the time I got out there, the man pulled her into the car and sped off!" Rachel shook and her eyes were wide in fear.

"What did the man look like?" Kono asked.

"H-he…he had sort of bright brown hair with a tinge of red in it…he was very young, Caucasian and he was somewhat tanned…he wasn't from around here, though. He wasn't a local."

"What was he wearing?" Chin asked as Kono scribbled down all of those details.

"Uhh…a suit. A nice suit, he looked wealthy. He was driven in a silver Lamborghini. He had someone else driving but I didn't get a look at him."

"Did you by any chance get a look at the license plates?"

She shook her head, looking at the floor.

"Okay, that's fine, thank you. If you have any more details, call us – you'll be escorted home by an officer and we'll keep you updated. Everything will be fine. We'll find her," Chin said.

Rachel nodded, still trembling slightly as she stood up and was escorted out of the house by an officer. Once the team was alone, they were all silent. No doubt, they were all waiting for Steve, who was the boss, to say something. Danny had his arms folded glaring at Steve while Chin and Kono exchanged glances.

"Uh…boss?" Kono asked.

Steve looked deep in thought. He looked up at Kono just as Danny burst out, "Well what the hell are we going to do? Give some orders, say something? Let's _do_ something! That's my daughter out there with some creep and if you're not going to act like there's a problem, I'm going to go and find her on my own!"

Danny went to leave and Steve switched into authoritative mode. "Danny, get back here!"

Danny stopped reluctantly, having to grip on the wooden doorframe to refrain from leaving.

"We're not going to get anywhere if we don't work as a team," Steve said. "Chin, you go back to the office and find out the registrations for all Lamborghini's within the town and then narrow them down with their owners. Check for any criminal records, affiliations with gangs or crimes and get back to me."

Chin nodded before leaving, "You got it boss."

"Kono, I need you to talk to HPD and work with them in case a ransom call comes through or any sort of connection with the kidnapper happens. You know what information we need and you need to get it without HPD's pointless circling and protocol. Give us a call if you hear anything, okay? I trust you."

Kono nodded. "Sure thing, boss."

Once the two were gone, Steve looked at Danny who was avoiding eye contact. "You and I are going to Luka's bar, the one we were at last night."

"Wh—What for? What purpose is that going to serve? You think that Grace is going to be there having a drink?"

"No," Steve answered, "But Rachel's description of the guy sounds familiar."

Danny raised an eyebrow, still having no idea what Steve was talking about but deciding that if Steve thought this was a lead, he had to go with it because quite frankly, he had no clue where to start.

The car ride to the bar was silent but Danny wasn't calm. He didn't look at Steve but his fingers were restlessly tapping against his own thigh and he couldn't sit still. Steve didn't blame him. Danny was protective of his daughter to the extent where he claimed that Grace wasn't allowed near coconut trees without a helmet due to the death rate of falling coconuts, according to something he read on the Internet. He remembered how scared Danny had gotten when there was a shootout during a football game that he had taken Grace to and what consequences that almost had on his custody rights over Grace. Now there was probably less of a chance of Danny ever getting to see Grace again if it took them longer than the weekend to find her and get her back.

Steve wanted to say something but he didn't know what. He didn't like it being silent and it was extremely unusual for the two to be in a car together and for a fight or argument or discussion not to ensue. Especially on Danny's part, him being the person who always begun the discussions.

For lack of a better idea, Steve cleared his throat.

He knew that he had gotten the attention of Danny but Danny refused to say anything to him. He was still restlessly tapping his thigh with the fingers on one hand and holding his mobile phone in the other, staring at it as if at any second, it would detonate. That or someone would call with news on Grace.

The silence continued for several more minutes when Danny's phone buzzed, the ringtone cutting through the silence like a chainsaw. Before the sound could play through for longer than a second, Danny picked it up so fast.

"Kono – what have you heard?"

Danny listened while Steve wondered for a moment why Kono wouldn't call him. He was her boss, he was _leading_ this investigation. But then again, it was Danny's daughter, so he tried not to dwell on the minute details.

"Okay…thanks, sweetie. I really appreciate this, call me the second a call comes through."

Danny hung up the phone and held it tightly in his hand, holding the phone up close to his mouth as he leaned his elbow against the edge of the window, staring out pointlessly through the window as if he'd find Grace just walking up the road and all would be well.

Steve waited for Danny to tell him what Kono had said. He _needed_ to know these things. All personal issues aside, they were at work and this was exactly the sort of information he needed to do his job properly.

When Danny didn't say anything, Steve said, "Well?"

It took Danny a moment to reply. "Well what?"

"What did she say? What did Kono say?"

"She's with the HPD."

"…And?"

"And nothing. They haven't found Grace so it's not important." This was probably the longest and most civil conversation they'd had since morning.

"Danny, it _is_ important. I need to know what's going on if you want her to be found!"

"'If I _want_ her to be found'? What, you think that I'm not telling you because I enjoy knowing the fact that my daughter, my _life_, is out there somewhere, with some creep probably doing—," Danny cut himself off mid-sentence because he felt sick. He lashed out and smacked his knuckles into the glove box, gasping only slightly as he felt his knuckles crack.

Steve winced but didn't say anything despite the desire to comfort his partner.

Another short silence and Steve said, "We're going to find her, Danny. We will."

"Yeah. That's right. We will."

Steve simply waited again, hoping that if Danny didn't relay the information of what Kono had said to him that Kono would just call herself and tell him.

"She just said that the HPD have received a couple of calls, the person hanging up every time. They said it's a start, though, and that they think whoever is doing it is trying to psych them out before they actually call and talk. They're going to try and track the location on the next call. They seem to be calling every twenty minutes, exactly."

"It's a start," Steve shrugged. "We'll call Chin and ask if he's got anything after we talk to Luka."

Danny murmured, "Yeah," but Steve could hear that he didn't think it'd get them anywhere. Steve could read Danny like a book. They hadn't even been partners for a long duration of time and yet Steve felt that he knew Danny better than others. He could tell that when he was truly mad, he'd go quiet and brooding and feel the need to lash out on everyone and everything just to feel some sense of control or progress, but when he was just angry at something stupid (well, stupid in Danny's opinion) Steve had done, he'd rant and argue and complain, but he wasn't truly angry at Steve. It was an 'on-the-surface' annoyance. It was rare for Danny to be as angry at Steve as he was at that moment, especially when Grace was involved.

Steve parked the car in the familiar parking lot where he subconsciously replayed the kiss the two had shared the night before, but pushed it out of his mind because there were more important things to be done.

"Hey, Luka," Steve greeted, as they approached the near empty bar. Luka had been throwing out the trash outside, dropping it near the trashcan due to the filled state of it.

"Steve, Aloha!" Luka grinned, grabbing Steve and hugging him in a tight grip. Luka was a big guy with tribal tattoos running up and down his arms. He was good-natured but had a zero tolerance policy when it came to disrespectful people.

"Hey, we need to talk to you," Danny said, already irritated.

"Hey, if it isn't the_ haeloe_. How's the hang over?" Luka questioned.

"Yeah, it's pounding." Danny looked at Steve and waited for him to ask the questions because Danny's memory of the night before was still as hazy as it had been half an hour ago back at the house when he heard the news.

"Luka, we're investigating a kidnapping-,"

"For real, bro? Who was kidnapped?"

"My daughter," Danny said. "And we don't have all day, so if you could just answer the questions and we'll be out of your hai—scalp." Luka's head was reflecting the sun off of it due to his baldness.

"Oh, bro, I'm sorry," Luka said, genuinely sorry, due to the fact that he was a father himself.

"Yeah," Danny said, looking away.

"Luka, last night when my team were having drinks at your bar, do you remember that man that sat down with us about an hour before we left?"

Luka thought for a moment and then asked, "The other _haeloe_? The one real rich one with the snazzy suit?"

"Yes, he and Danny were talking. He's not from around here is he?"

"Bro, I know every single one of my customers and almost everyone on the island-,"

"Slight exaggeration," Danny murmured beneath his breath but Luka ignored him.

"—and that _haeloe_ was not someone who I had seen before. And bro, he must have been new 'cos he still had the airplane tag on his bag when he left the bar."

"Airplane tag?" Steve questioned. "I didn't see that. I don't even remember noticing a bag."

"Nah, brah, cos you was too busy staring at your own _haeloe _the whole night," Luka laughed, referring to Danny.

Steve blushed as Danny shook his head and said, "Luka, if you don't speak another sentence without a smart ass comment, I'm going to arrest you. I don't even _care_ what for! My daughter is out there somewhere and you're laughing. Don't even make me-,"

Danny stepped forward angrily, ready to fight if he had to, despite being much shorter than Luka. Steve threw his arm out and pushed Danny back and tried to keep the situation calm even though he could tell that Luka was beginning to become irritated.

"Luka, just tell us everything you remember, please," Steve said.

"Brah, the second you left, he didn't stay for longer than five seconds. He had drunk one drink the entire time while your partner here took enough for the whole bar."

Steve looked at Danny who was still trying to figure out who they were talking about.

"Do you remember any of this, Danny?" Steve asked.

"I remember some guy in a suit but…everything else is a bit…wait, was he the guy who bought me all the drinks? Where did you go?" Danny asked Steve.

"I went to the bathroom."

Danny raised an eyebrow but decided that this was not the time to press any further questions that would stall their investigation. He'd leave those for later…or for when he properly remembered what had happened the night before.

"He called someone after you two left, it was a short conversation, though, and then some other guy, this time a local, came and picked him up."

"He said he was here on business," said Steve, remembering. "He was supposed to leave this morning – why would he have a local pick him up if he was here strictly for business? It doesn't make sense that he'd have any connections with the locals here if he just comes for work."

"Yeah, and the guy was from another part of the island, too, brah. He wasn't like the _haeloe_, didn't have on a business suit or nothing. I've never seen him around before," Luka told Steve.

"I thought you said that you knew everyone on the island," Danny said, folding his arms.

Luka ignored him as if he hadn't said anything, his attention still with Steve.

"You didn't happen to have caught his name, did you?" Steve asked.

Luka shook his head. "Sorry."

"That's okay. Thank you, Luka. Let me know if you hear anything else and if he makes a stop back here again, even for a drink – I don't care if he's your best paying customer, _call me_ straight away."

Luka nodded and waved them goodbye as the two walked off, both lost in their own thoughts.

After a few moments, Steve said, "I knew there was something shifty about that guy last night. And we didn't even get his name…he didn't want to tell you."

"I doubt I would've remembered had he told me," Danny shrugged. "This is not good," Danny murmured.

Steve didn't want to ask, but he had to know what part exactly that Danny was referring to because he was sure that in Danny's opinion it was all terrible and he didn't want to annoy him any further.

"What is?"

"I was drunk! I was so drunk I could've…I could've told him _anything_! And I probably mentioned Grace…_fuck_, I always mention Grace and there's probably no doubt that I mentioned her to him and now he's got her."

"Danny, we don't know anything for sure, he's just a suspect. It's not your fault." Steve accidentally almost said "It's _probably_ not your fault", which wouldn't have been a good idea, he was sure of it.

"No, you don't understand," Danny said, stopping Steve by extending an arm. "This, the fact that it's happened, _is_ my fault. It's _all_ my fault. The fact that my daughter is in danger, is my fault. If Grace skins a knee while she's with me, it's _my _fault. Because I'm a father and it's my job to protect her. And when I don't, then what am I? I'm worthless."


	4. A Lead

Four | A Lead

Back at the 5-0 head quarters, Chin was narrowing down the leads he had found based on the description that Rachel had given them about the car that drove off with Grace in it.

"They're available on the island, definitely," Chin stated as Steve and Danny watched him sift through dozens of license plates and pictures of the car in question as he spoke, "but they're not very popular unless the owners aren't locals and are wealthy. The car is most popular at car rentals, which is why I think this car is a rental because I can't find any connections to locals or mainlanders that drive this car with any sort of affiliation with a gang or person with a criminal record. They're also very few on this part of the island and there are none within the vicinity of your suburb or Rachel's, Danny."

Danny nodded, his arms folded, still waiting for some sort of good news.

"I spoke with the nearest car rental places that held Lamborghinis," Chin continued, "and I got the details of the latest rentals, and there's a name that stuck out to me I just can't remember why. Does the name Bane Kahale mean anything to either of you?"

Danny shook his head but Steve repeated the name quietly under his breath, the name sounding familiar. "Bane Kahale…Bane Kahale…" He hurried off into his office and shoved aside papers, not knowing exactly what he was looking for but not being able to fight off the urge that he was going to find something related to that name.

Steve finally found it. It was a mug shot of Bane Kahale, a description beneath it linking him to _The Lionas_, the gang that they had caught the previous day. Well, at least they had thought they had caught, considering everything.

Steve hurried back out to Chin and Danny and said, "I knew his name sounded familiar. He's linked to _The Lionas_, the gang we thought we shut down yesterday."

"Why didn't we get him?" Danny asked, "I don't remember you mentioning anything about him."

"That's because we used him for information about the gang in exchange for immunity…but why would he be renting Lamborghinis and helping in a kidnapping because he definitely didn't _do_ it. He doesn't match Rachel's description. He must have been driving."

"Maybe it was revenge?" Chin offered.

Danny shook his head slowly. "This guy doesn't have the balls to mess with the cops this soon after he saw what happened to his whole gang…he definitely has an ulterior motive. He's too cowardly to attempt this considering the fact that he doesn't want to be threatened with a Rottweiler attack again."

"Hey, it was in his neighbourhood," Steve defended, "—setting it loose would've just been like letting it out for a walk."

"Yeah, despite it's bloodlust for Kahale," Danny said, raising an eyebrow.

Steve shrugged. "We need to talk to Kahale."

"Boss, if he was the one driving this car, I doubt you'll find him at his house. He would have probably gone off with whoever has Grace. It's too risky for him to be at home."

"You're probably right," Steve said. "But we'll go and check anyways. Have you heard anything from Kono?"

"Not yet."

"Speak of the devil," said Danny, turning his attention to the direction of the entrance of the headquarters when Kono walked in, looking breathless.

"Boss, we got a call," she said.

Danny felt his heart start thudding loudly in his chest.

"You did?"

She nodded. "I practically ran here from my car," she said, explaining her breathlessness, "—This guy is good, boss. He's not making the calls himself – the voice of the guy who did make the call, though, was recognised by one of the HPD officers, it was-,"

"Bane Kahale," Chin said.

"Yeah, exactly. And he didn't sound very ecstatic to be making the call. Halfway through the he almost chickened out when the HPD officer called him on his bluff and the other guy made him hang up, but we heard Grace, Danny," she said to him. "She's okay, they said that they didn't hurt her but they have a list of demands. And if they don't get them…"

"They will hurt her," Danny said, confirming his worst fears, his mind simply blank. "What do they want?" Danny demanded. "We'll get it for them; we'll get it for them now! What do they want? Where's the drop off point? We have to get Grace back!" Danny wasn't speaking like a detective at this point. His parental instincts had completely taken over and the fact that they had heard something about his daughter only emphasised his fatherly traits.

"Danny, calm down for a second," Steve said.

"Don't you tell me to calm down! This is my daughter! I'm prepared to give them everything I have, all of the money in my bank account to get her back. Whatever they want, they're going to get it!"

Steve rubbed his eyes with his hands and then lifted his head and turned to Kono. "What do they want?"

"They didn't say yet because of what happened with Kahale, but before they hung up, the leader said that they'd call back with demands in exactly an hour."

"An hour? Why an hour?" Danny demanded, now feeling his excitement at getting his daughter back slink away into an abyss of nothing.

"I don't know," Kono said, "Dramatic effect?"

"That's not good enough!" Danny exclaimed. "Do they realise that they have a little girl who is probably scared to death? Are they feeding her? What state is she in?"

"They didn't say," Kono said, "But they did say that they hadn't hurt her."

"Danny, this is good," Steve said, trying to explain. "It means that they'll let her go as long as they get what they want, they're not just doing this for kicks – we have leverage!"

"Yeah, but we don't know what that leverage is, therefore we have nothing to negotiate with or think up a plan until they call with their demands that we have to either agree to on the spot or let Grace be-," Danny didn't know how to finish that sentence. He didn't _want_ to finish that sentence. He didn't know how he could because he knew that he'd jump to the worst possible conclusion, so all he did was quietly murmur, "…hurt."

Steve stepped over to Danny and grabbed the sides of his arms and squeezed them reassuringly and looked him directly in the eyes. "Danny. We're going to get her back, okay? If we have to, I'll negotiate myself in exchange for Grace, all right? We'll get her back."

Danny felt his heart skip a beat and irregularly thud in his chest. _Steve would do that for him? _Danny thought. Danny whole heartedly appreciated the gesture but wasn't about to show it. Quite frankly, being told that he'd gain one thing he loved in exchange for losing another that he loved didn't seem like a good enough deal to Danny.

Danny didn't know what to say so he just nodded.

"You should call Rachel," Steve told him. "Tell her what's happening."

"Y-yeah, I should," Danny said, his voice trembling slightly at the intensity of Steve's gaze and determination. "I'll do that."

Steve let him go despite the overwhelming urge to just pull Danny forward and envelop him in a fierce hug.

Danny went off into his own office to call Rachel while Steve turned to his team. "We need to find out the connection between Kahale and this guy the second we get onto the phone with them, got it? I have a suspect in mind that could be this guy that Kahale is with. We need to try and trace the call, keep them talking long enough."

"We did try and trace the call," Kono said, "but it was off the grid."

"Okay…well we need them to _tell_ us where they are."

"I doubt they'll do that without guarantee that they're going to get what they want," Chin told Steve.

"We're going to have to try. I can tell for sure that Kahale isn't the one leading this operation so we need the guy who refuses to talk. We need to know who _he_ is."

"Whoever he is," Kono said, "he was definitely in charge. He was Kahale's superior, I suppose you could say, his boss. He was scared, I could tell by the trembling in his voice, but this guy was ruthless. Kahale would probably only do this because of previous attachments to the gang which this guy knew about so he was one of the gang leaders…but if he's not local…"

"Then he must be an investor for the drug trade from overseas. We have to have some sort of information on this guy. Chin, I need you to go through all of the files we have on all of the members of the gang and set aside all of the guys who weren't there, therefore not arrested, and set aside all of the leaders. Try and find some links to mainlanders that have had affiliations with the gang so that we can narrow it down to who this guy is."

"You got it, boss," Chin said and went off into his office to grab some papers.

Steve turned to Kono and said, "Good work."

"Thanks," she said. She glanced in the direction of Danny's office where he was, for the first time, listening and not waving his arms around and arguing. Steve knew that Danny felt that he wasn't in a position to do so, blaming himself so harshly. "I feel so terrible for Danny. He's so protective over Grace and…she's his daughter…I can't imagine how he feels right now."

"Yeah, me either," Steve replied.

"Boss, can I ask you a question?" Kono asked after a few moments of silence, Steve becoming absorbed in watching Danny through the window of his office.

"Hm? Yeah, what is it?"

"Uh…why was Danny at your place this morning? I mean, why wasn't he there to meet Rachel when she dropped Grace off but you were there before him?"

Steve felt his mind kick into overdrive as he tried to think up a believable lie. When that failed him and Kono's question was about to render him moot, he tried to answer as honestly as possible, leaving out bits and pieces of the truth.

"He stayed over," Steve said, leaving out the whole part of how they slept together. "It was late and he was drunk, I wasn't going to let him drive home and I lived closer, so…"

Kono nodded, not quite believing him, but not about to argue, waiting. Waiting for him to answer the other part of her question: why was he on the scene before Danny was, if Danny was still at his place? Surely, Steve would've woken Danny up and told him to come with.

"Oh, right…well Danny slept in and Rachel called me because she said that she couldn't reach him, so I thought that I'd let him sleep and go and get Grace and bring her back to my place so that she could enjoy the beach…that and I didn't think Danny was still in any real state to drive and I didn't want to get him in trouble with Rachel for not taking Grace on the day he had custody. Then when everything started happening I was so caught up in the whole mess that I…" Steve shrugged, "I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to have to tell Danny."

It was all true. Steve did have the motive to go and get Grace while Danny slept so that he could surprise his partner and treat them to a day of relaxation and fun at his house, it being far more equipped as something a child would find interesting as compared to Danny's small house which was easily equipped for a bachelor. And Steve also didn't want to be the one to tell Danny. He actually was hoping that he'd be able to get her back before Danny woke up, like some sort of superhero, but he wasn't.

He was just Steve McGarrett and he had failed his best friend, his partner, his everything. And now he didn't know what he could do, if anything, to fix it all, to turn back time to its perfect state ever again.


	5. Negotiations

Five | Negotiations

Kono, Steve and Danny arrived at HPD with forty five minutes left of the hour in which Grace's captors were going to call. Danny insisted that they leave the second that he got off of the phone in case something changed, and neither Kono or Steve were about to push it and argue with him over time.

They sat around a table where a speaker phone was waiting, idly. Danny sat away from Steve and Kono, on the other side of the table. He had his hands clasped in front of him, his elbows on the table as he rested it against his face, his eyes peering at the phone the whole time as if the harder he stared, the sooner it would ring.

Steve wasn't looking at the phone – it was the last place he thought to look and not only because looking at it wouldn't change anything, but because Danny was there. The whole time that Steve stared at Danny, he mulled over in his mind what he could say to make things better. If not fix things, just make them slightly better. Because the way they were going now, their future didn't look very bright in the least.

Fragments of the memory of their night together, the night before, kept popping up in Steve's mind and he wondered if Danny remembered any of it at all. Steve hoped he did. But he doubted it considering the interactions they'd had since it had happened. It was exactly what Steve was dreading, the awkwardness. The problems that it would cause in their work relationship, even in their friendship - let alone any sort of romantic relationship.

"How much longer?" Danny asked, his mouth barely moving, but his eyes not wavering off of the phone in the centre of the table.

"A little under half an hour," Kono answered.

Steve had his hands clasped on his stomach as he leaned back in his chair and focused on Danny. "Are you okay?" he decided to ask.

"I'm fine," he replied in a clipped tone, his eyes still on the phone.

Steve wanted to keep Danny talking but he didn't know what to say. Kono glanced between the two and said, "Uhh, I'll leave you two alone -,"

"No!" both men commanded and Kono dropped back down in her seat.

She awkwardly looked around the room for a moment and then pulled out her phone as if it had rung. "Oh, I have to get this, it's Chin. He might have some information, I'll be right back." She left before Steve or Danny could say anything.

Danny, still staring at the phone, was the first one to speak. "Did you tell her?"

Steve knew exactly what he was talking about, but desperate to keep their conversation going, he asked, "Tell her what?"

Danny took a moment before answering. "About last night." Steve could see that it took effort to say, "About last night" rather than "About us".

Steve shook his head. "I haven't told anyone anything," he said, honestly. "I mean, if you'd rather us forget it or -," Steve shrugged and Danny sighed and finally took his eyes off of the phone and looked at Steve. He looked tired. Very tired.

"I want to forget a lot right now," Danny said. "But there are just some things that will stay with you forever."

Steve could tell that he was referring to both the whole situation with Grace and the whole issue with them. He didn't want to press anything but he hoped that that wasn't a bad thing.

"Danny, I'm not going to…push anything on you. Especially not now," Steve told him, looking him directly in the eyes, sitting up straighter, his voice lower. "If it's what you want, we don't ever have to speak about this again and we can just move on, okay? Everything will go back to being the same and…we can just get on with our lives. I'm not going to try and convince you that this is what you want if its not. For all I know, you want nothing to do with me after this is over."

Steve had absolutely no clue what he meant when he said any of that because he damn well knew that nothing would ever be the same because _he'd _be heart broken, himself. And he didn't know what he'd do if Danny wanted nothing to do with him after this had all blown over. If he were to be completely honest, it was all for Danny's benefit. Steve, himself, would suffer but he'd suffer if it was for Danny. He would.

Danny looked at him but said nothing. Danny didn't know what to say to Steve. To Steve, Danny looked as if he didn't care – that all possibilities for a relationship or even a friendship between them had been ruined by Steve's actions or by the events of the day but in all honesty, Danny didn't know what to say to that. He knew it wasn't the time or place so he simply said nothing.

"No call yet?" asked a HPD officer as he wheeled a table full of police equipment into the room.

"No. Nothing yet," Danny answered, back in cop mode.

Steve sighed and rubbed his face with his hands before folding his arms and watching the HPD officer set up, more people joining them in the room, their moment officially over.

Kono walked back in and sat down, folding her hands in her laps as she waited. Danny and Steve looked at her expectantly.

"…What?" she asked.

"What did Chin say?" Steve asked.

Kono's eyes widened as he remembered her bluff. "Oh, right…uh…he hasn't found anything…worth reporting…yet."

"Yeah, that's it," Danny said, rolling his eyes, knowing exactly what Kono's game was.

Time passed slowly but when it was exactly one hour on the dot since Grace's captors said they would call, the HPD phone rang.

Danny stood up so fast, completely ignoring the specialists that were patching through the call and holding their hand up to give him the signal to pick it up, and smacked his hand down on the 'answer' button. Upon doing that, the specialists had to work twice as fast to be properly set up and start trying to trace the call again, recording it for any clues as to their whereabouts.

Danny was standing, and Steve stood up automatically as well – he didn't feel right sitting and staying calm in this situation.

"Who is this?" Danny automatically asked.

The voice was deep but it sounded like it was being put on – it wasn't the person's natural voice and they doubted that it was a voice changer. "That's not your p-problem," the man answered. His voice was trembling but Kono whispered to Steve that it was steadier this time around. Clearly, they had used the hour to re-cooperate.

"All you have to know is what we want and get it to us if you ever want to see your daughter again. So shut up and listen and we might tell you what that is."

Danny's knuckles turned white as he clenched his hands into fists on the table. Steve listened calmly.

"You took something from us the other day and we'd very much like it back."

"Wh—what did we take?" Danny demanded.

"I said _SHUT UP and listen!_" the man shouted.

Danny glared at the phone but remained quiet. A few moments later, the man working on tracing the call gave a signal and mouthed, "Off grid."

Steve interrupted, his voice calm, "This is Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, I am the leader in this operation – we will negotiate this calmly but that can only happen if you let both parties speak, which means us, as well-,"

"I want to talk to my daughter," Danny interrupted. "I want to talk to Gracie, where is she?"

"If we get what we want, you'll see her again, don't you worry," the man said.

"You're not _listening to me, man!_ Where is my daughter? I'm not making any deals until I talk to her and know that she's okay!"

"Danny," Steve mouthed, warning in his eyes.

Danny completely disregarded Steve.

"So put her on the phone and then we'll negotiate!"

There was silence on the other end of the line and then suddenly, as if the phone was tossed outside into a crowd, noise erupted and they could hear chatter of the busy Hawaiian lifestyle of the locals as if near a beach or a tourist spot. As quick as it had come, it was gone, a door slamming shut on the noise.

"Daddy?" came a timid voice.

"Grace!" Danny exclaimed. "Gracie, baby, are you okay? Honey, don't worry about anything, we are going to come get you as soon as possible, I want you to stay strong for daddy, okay? We're going to come get you, baby."

"D-Daddy, I'm scared," she sniffled.

Steve looked at Danny and could almost see his heart tearing in half as Danny tried to sound strong for his daughter.

"I know, baby, I know, but you're going to be okay, alright? Just sit tight and wait for me, okay? Danno loves you."

"I-I love you, Danno," she stammered as if trying to suppress tears thanks to her father's words.

As quick as he had heard Grace's voice, she was taken away and the man was put back onto the phone. Once again, they heard a door open, the sound of the locals and the Hawaiian life pouring in, as well as a distant drilling sound, but it was shut just as quickly.

"You heard your daughter, now it's time to listen to our…d-demands."

They waited silently, Danny absently tapping his fingers now on the table.

"We want the ten million that was collected from the _Lionas_ head quarters wired into our offshore account and all of the…_product_, collected at the scene, as well. We want what belongs to us."

Kono looked at Steve as did Danny since he was the leader. Steve's eyes had hardened as he realised what was being asked.

He automatically reacted and said, "Not possible."

"What?" demanded the man as well as Danny.

Kono was shocked into silence, knowing what was going to come.

Steve looked up at Danny and glared, not about to discuss all of their operations whilst having a criminal on the phone.

"Firstly," Steve explained, both to the man on the phone and to Danny, "we do not have that sort of money nor your 'product' in our custody, it has already been taken into protection by other Hawaiian officials and secondly, that is evidence and illegal merchandise which we are not allowed to release to anybody, let alone who we confiscated it from. So no deal."

"No," Danny said his eyes wide and his tone shocked. "No, Steve, no, we have to come to some sort of agreement! We have to get Grace back."

"Danny, calm down," Steve told him, completely in professional mode. It wouldn't help them at all for Danny to completely lose his head with a criminal on the phone, giving him the ability to expose their weaknesses.

Danny bit his lip to quieten himself as he said, "We don't have that to give to you," as calmly as possible and asked, "We can come to some sort of other agreement?"

"Detective Danny Williams, father of Grace Williams, am I right?" The voice had changed. This voice wasn't being put on, it was just a normal voice, one that struck a chord with Danny. He knew that voice.

"Who is this?" Danny asked.

"It hurts me that you don't remember," the man teased.

Suddenly, it clicked in Danny's mind. "You—you! You're the guy from the bar! You bastard! I can't believe this – give me back my daughter, you fucking psycho!"

"That sort of language will get you nowhere, Detective. Now – you know our demands, the only option is to give us what we want or you'll never see your little Grace again. I'm not the negotiating type of man."

"What are you going to do to her? I swear to God, if you touch a hair on her head, I will find you myself and I will enjoy the experience of killing you and I'll say that it was self defense, I swear to every God that people believe in, I will. Don't even try me you-,"

"So this is what you're like when you're not drunk? Makes sense why your team wanted to get you a little smashed, you were so much nicer last night," the man laughed, completely unfazed by everything that Danny was threatening him with. "And don't worry, I mean, I might not even have to have your daughter harmed…she is _very _pretty, only going to get prettier I assume-,"

"YOU SICK SON OF A BITCH, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" Danny shouted at the phone as loud as he possibly could, anger bubbling up so fiercely that his hand threatened to throw the phone at the opposite wall with all of his might.

"Okay, Danny, come on," Steve walked over to him and grabbed him by his arms, his grip strong, overpowering Danny easily. He dragged Danny out of the room, leaving Kono to the negotiations despite Danny's strong and quite violent protests.

Danny struggled against Steve all the way out and even when they were outside in the warm sun of Hawaii, the day and island as bright as ever, as if nothing was happening, Danny tried to shove Steve off of him.

Steve finally pushed Danny away, tired of his fighting attempts, pushing him to vent the anger out. Danny paced up and down, trying to stay calm, but not really succeeding.

"Danny, what the hell was that?" Steve asked, his hands on his hips, his voice still the professional calm tone he adopted for work.

"Wh-What the hell was _that_? What _I_ was doing? What the hell was _that_?" he demanded of Steve's action. "''_Not possible'_? This is my DAUGHTER we are talking about, what the hell is wrong with you? Do you not realise that this is Grace? This isn't some random person we don't know that we have no attachment to! This is my daughter! My flesh and blood! With some fucking paedophile psycho1"

"Danny, I know she's your daughter, but what, we're supposed to treat this case differently because of that? What, you want to be less caring and not as involved with a kidnapping case if it's someone else's child? No, Danny! Every child that is kidnapped deserves the same amount of dedication to the case! Just because she's your daughter, doesn't mean that you can go around ruining leads and negotiations like that! Grace deserves to have the proper procedure carried through in order to solve this case the professional way, the right way. It _works_ Danny, and you're not a father right now, you're a cop. So start acting like one."

"Excuse me?" Danny asked, disbelief defining his tone. "Since when have you ever followed the 'proper procedure'? When? Name _one_ time where you've ever followed the proper procedure! Please, Steve, I am dying to hear about that one time where you followed the proper procedure and I went completely off grid because the governor gave me immunity, please, Steve."

Danny glared daggers at Steve, absolutely enraged.

"That is my _daughter_. Excuse me for being a father for a moment, but you have no idea how this feels! You don't have children and you don't care about Grace the way I do, and you probably will never care about anybody as much as I care about Grace because you're some sort of crazy Navy Seal robot! I apologise for your lack of emotions and feelings, but I happen to have them towards my daughter."

"You're right, Danny," Steve said, now easily recognising the passive aggressiveness within himself as he said, "You do have feelings and emotions towards Grace, of course you would, she's your daughter. Naturally, I realise that you're emotionally involved – which is not a good thing when we're investigating a case of this proportion. Detective, you're suspended from this case until further notice."

Danny stared at Steve, not sure what part of that shocked him more. The fact that Steve was kicking him off of the case or the fact that he had called him 'detective'.

"What?" Danny said, not sure which emotion was overwhelming him anymore.

Steve folded his arms, repressing a sigh and said, "I'm sorry Danny, I want you off the case – this isn't working."

"You're…you're kicking me off of the case in which my own daughter is involved? You know what? Fine. I'll find her myself – you're all useless anyways. And do you know what, _Lieutenant_?" Danny growled the word purposely, "I _quit_. Okay? And when I get her back, because I will, I want absolutely nothing to do with any of you ever again. Especially not you."

Danny spun around and walked off leaving Steve still standing there, watching him walk off.

"I'm sorry for saving you from yourself," Steve murmured, the only thought running through his mind as his heart drowned in doubt was that he did that to save Danny from anymore pain of having to deal with people like the ones they had just conversed with.


	6. Working Alone

_I apologise, this chapter is very dull and I am very tired at the moment so... I don't particularly like it but y'know, we live and we learn not to write crappy chapters and post them online. I suppose it's just some sort of filler chapter...IGNORE ME? Anyways, I've been reading the comments and thank you to all of you that enjoy the story, and thank you to everyone that has criticised my writing and made me eat copious amounts of Nutella in order to get over it. _

_- Maddie._

Six | Working Alone

Steve took a minute before walking back into the HPD head quarters to find Kono jotting down the list of demands and working with three HPD officers to figure out the location from the call which had ended since Danny had been dragged out.

"What do you have?" Steve asked as he stood on the other side of the table, opposite to Kono and the officers.

She looked up. Noticing that he was alone, she asked, "Where's Danny?"

Steve had his hands on his hips as he looked away and said in a voice as professional as he could manage, "Detective Williams has been suspended from this case until further notice."

Kono looked at him, her eyes wide. It clearly didn't mean much to the other officers who more or less expected that to be the result of Danny's outburst, if not a complete termination of his position, but to Kono that was a surprise. The 5-0 team were tight-knit and she knew the relationship that Steve had with Danny as partners – they complemented each other work-wise and for Steve to be working alone and to have _suspended_ Danny – something had to have been going on.

Kono dropped the pen and said, "Boss, can I talk to you outside for a minute?"

"Is it necessary?" Steve asked, even though he'd usually just say 'yes'.

"Yes. Very necessary," she said.

Steve shrugged in response and they left the room into the almost quieter HPD hallway.

"What is it?" Steve asked.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Excuse me?"

"Suspending Danny – what are you doing?"

"Kono, it is within my every right to suspend Danny – I might be his partner but I'm also his boss and he was getting too emotionally involved in the case to the point where he was jeopardising our only lead-,"

Kono cut him off, shaking her head, "'Emotionally involved'? Boss, that's his _daughter_. Of course he's emotionally involved. I was emotionally involved with the case of my mentor's murder but that didn't mean that I couldn't handle it or that I should've been kicked off! You two haven't been right since this case opened and I don't know why, but you both need to cut it out and you need to re-instate Danny. We're hopeless without his insight – this is _his_ daughter."

Steve shook his head and then said, "That's all good and well, but we are perfectly capable on getting Grace back ourselves. And even if I were to re-instate him, I couldn't, because he resigned."

"_What?_"

Steve folded his arms in response and looked away, trying to ignore the pain threatening to choke him.

Danny entered the 5-0 headquarters feeling as if he were alone and that there was going to be nobody there since he knew that Steve wasn't going to be. He had completely forgotten about Chin and that had stayed back to keep digging.

He had one sole purpose at the headquarters – to get as much information as he could and then leave and never return, his things be damned.

"Oh, hey, Danny," came Chin's voice absently when he noticed him.

Danny stopped, surprised and turned around, "Oh, hey. I forgot that you were here."

"Where else would I be?" he chuckled. "So how's it going over there? Hear anything?"

Danny considered telling Chin about everything that had happened, including his suspension and resignation and even though he knew that he could trust Chin, Chin _worked_ for Steve. Steve would get the information out of him easily and Danny would be tracked down and have the information taken away from him. It'd be much easier on Chin if he were oblivious – at least that way he stayed out of trouble.

"Uh, yeah, we got a call but it didn't go so well."

"What happened?"

Danny rubbed his forehead and said, "McGarrett doesn't want to give the guy what he wants."

"What? Why? What does he want?"

"He's part of that gang or one of the leaders or whatever, that we shut down, and he wants all of the money and drugs that we took from them, back."

Chin stared at him. "That's millions of dollars in drugs that we don't even have access to."

"Yeah, well it turns out that explaining that to some crazy sort of drug lord, doesn't work. Who would've known?"

"Well…man, I'm sure Steve's going to work something out. He's good, he'll figure it out. We all will."

"Yeah," Danny said although his tone was as far from agreeing as possible. He didn't believe that his team was going to get anything back, but that was what the anger in his mind was telling him. He was doing a surprisingly good job of keeping composed in front of Chin.

"So what are you doing here?" Chin asked.

"Hm?"

"…Shouldn't you be over there? Helping them work out a deal?"

Danny shook his head and said, "I, uh, couldn't handle talking to the guy. All I did was shout and wanted to shoot the phone on which I could hear his voice, so…"

He told some of the truth. That was good, right?

"Damn, I hope Steve didn't kick you back here because of that," Chin said, a worried look now gracing his sharp features.

Danny shook his head, doing his best not to explode and rant to Chin…or punch a wall. He just said, "I came back to get whatever we didn't have before. Get some more…information."

Danny was a really bad liar. Especially when he didn't have someone to back him up.

"You could've just given me a call," Chin told him as Danny walked over to the large screens and computer they had installed in the headquarters.

"I would've but I like it when you swish the stuff off of this big screen onto those," Danny said, trying to manage what he thought was a smile but turned out to be some sort of forced grimace.

Chin smirked and said, "Okay…well I managed to pull some details from the local airport, I spoke to a couple of flight attendants and assistants and anyone basically who was on a plane or had access to a computer with all of the bookings, and I used Rachel's description, especially considering that we're lucky that he's not a native. I narrowed the search down to three guys – all were in business class, all of them being business men, obviously, and all stating that they were here for work."

Danny looked at the photos as they appeared on the large monitors one by one as Chin led him through it, all of the men matching pretty closely to Rachel's description.

"The first guy, Travis Sampson – CEO of a large corporation over in New York. Here on business for a week, paid with a card. I ran his name through our data bases, nothing came up for a criminal record and he seems legit – he travels to and from Hawaii very often. The second guy, Andrew O' Connell, owns a small internet company which he's looking to expand and promote while he's here. It's his first trip here but since he's gotten here, he's been to an expo and has been in plenty of pictures online and newspapers so he's actually been doing work and not kidnapping anyone. The third guy, I'm sure is our guy. His name is Adam Calwell and he's-,"

"That's him," Danny said, his eyes wide, his memory flooding back to him. That was the man. He felt as if he had just seen him or as if he were standing before him that moment – as if he had never had that bad haze of memory loss. "That's him, that's the guy!" Danny exclaimed.

"Are you sure?" Chin asked.

"Absolutely, that's him." Danny would've liked to have said that he would've recognised his face anywhere, but considering the fact that he had spent the whole day denying that he had any clue what Steve was talking about, he didn't think it wise.

"Call McGarrett and let him know, I'll call Kono and give her the details."

Danny continued to look at the picture of Adam, unmoving. He had heard what Chin had said but he didn't want to respond because he didn't know how to tell Chin that the last thing he wanted to do was talk to McGarrett about anything, even if it could help them solve the case. He was intent on doing it himself considering how their last conversation had gone.

"Danny…?" Chin's voice cut through Danny's reverie and he finally realised that he'd have to respond.

"Uh can you just get me that information to go? I need to find my daughter."

Chin looked at him and Danny thought that Chin could read his eyes and see into his soul and know exactly all that he was holding back. Only Danny wasn't about to let on and admit everything.

Chin nodded, almost hesitant and said, "Sure."

Danny was almost positive that Chin knew something along the lines of him and Steve not talking but he doubted that Chin thought as far as him being suspended and quitting and Danny wanted to keep it that way.

Chin handed Danny all the information that he had and Danny muttered a quiet 'thank you' and was about to leave when Chin said, "Take care of yourself, Danny. We're going to find her."

Danny took a moment, feigned a smile and said, "I'm sure you will."

He left as quickly as possible, only hearing Chin dial their colleagues number as the door shut behind him.


	7. Stubborn

_And since it's my birthday tomorrow, here is a present for all of you! I promise that the next chapter has Steve/Danno interaction for all of you hardcore shippers (I make that seem as if I'm not one bahah.) This chapter is slightly lighter while ALSO…features me trying to incorporate my mad crime-solving/writing skills which unfortunately are non-existent. I'll try to work on it, though. _

_- Maddie._

Seven | Stubborn

Steve stared down intently at all of the information that Chin had faxed over to HPD while listening to the previous call on a loop as he tried to figure out what they would do as leverage if they couldn't get what the man called Adam Calwell, as he had learned, wanted.

Kono, on the other hand, watched Steve. Steve was tapping his pen on the table, his face leaning on the palm of his other hand. He was restless, she could tell, but she also knew that he was fighting in his mind – more over his previous decisions when it came to Danny rather than anything to do with the case, where his mind actually should've been focused.

"Still thinking about him?" Kono asked, breaking the silence.

Steve didn't even look up and said, "No, I am not thinking about him. Why would you think that I was thinking about Danny?"

"I didn't say Danny," Kono answered, trying to conceal her smirk.

Steve looked up, genuinely surprised and paused the recording. "_Oh_, uh…who did you mean? Calwell?" he asked, feelings his cheeks redden.

Kono then took the moment to shoot Steve a satisfied grin as she said, "Simple psychological question. I didn't say a name, but someone automatically came to your mind, said person being Danny, who you suspended and basically convinced to resign a few hours ago."

Steve looked at her and then said, "I'll convince you to resign pretty soon if you don't drop it."

"Face it, boss, we need him. This is his daughter and he needs to have this one. He needs to be the one to get her back – do you know how worthless he'll feel if his daughter is kidnapped and he wasn't able to get her back? Because you know that he won't be able to. Not without us."

Steve looked at her and sighed, saying, "He won't get her back, you're right. And not only because he's not working with us, but because he's not allowed to touch the case, no matter how emotionally involved he is. He's off the case which means that he is _off the case_. It's not his business anymore. He's supposed to sit tight and wait for our information."

Kono raised an eyebrow. "Boss, I know that you and Danny haven't been partners as long as some other cops on the force but you know him better than anyone – do you honestly think that Danny is going to 'sit tight and wait for our information'?"

"No," said Steve, "but it'll do him some good to stay away from this case for a while. Look, Kono, I understand his relationship with Grace, I do. I know how strongly he feels about her, he's her father, it's natural. I know he'd go to the ends of the Earth or kill for her, but this isn't good for him. This only going to wreck him if we keep letting him around it all when we're not even close to catching the guy. He's only going to keep taunting Danny until he finally snaps."

"Until he finally snaps? What do you call what he did at the ransom call?"

"I don't mean that sort of snap – that, I get from him everyday. I mean emotionally and mentally, he won't be the same. Honestly, if you want to break Danny Williams, the only way is through Grace. And this guy got him good."

Kono sighed and ran her hands through her hair and said, "You didn't do this on the case with Mecca. He was pretty personally involved in that one, too,"

"Yeah, but Grace is still alive and he'd like to keep her that way. That time he was just avenging Mecca. If he was like that with Mecca , who was dead, the entire case, imagine his reactions now – not that you exactly need to, considering that you've already seen him on the phone."

Kono nodded slowly and looked down at the files in front of her when she said, "I still think that you shouldn't have suspended him, though."

"Kono, can you just – I'm trying to listen to something here," Steve said as he had pressed 'play' again the second that there was a gap in their conversation.

"Sorry," she murmured.

Steve listened intently to the recording on a loop, focusing on something in particular which Kono couldn't point out. He was all but pressing his ear up against the speaker.

A few minutes went by and Kono said, "You're really in love him, aren't you?"

The first person that came to Steve's mind was Danny and he said, exasperated, "Kono, I am not in love with Danny."

Her grin almost extended off of her face as she said, "I didn't say anyone's name."

Steve pressed paused and looked up at her, a look of horror on his face.

"Another simple psychological question. Good to know that I was right, though," she said gleefully.

Steve glared at her. "You're not right about anything, so drop it," Steve told her. "He hates me anyways," Steve added, muttering.

Kono did everything but squeal as loud as she possibly could. "He does not! He loves you, too! Tell me the truth, that's what happened last night, isn't it? Come on, you can share this with me!"

Steve's eyes widened. "Kono, _if _anything did happen, the last person I'd tell would be you. No – I wouldn't tell anyone for that matter, those things are personal."

"Okay, you wound me, boss. Come on. You have to give me_ something_ or I'm just never going to drop it."

"Kono, nothing happened," Steve lied. "So you'd better drop it soon or you'll just be disappointed when you realise that you're winding something that didn't happen, up."

"But-,"

"No," Steve said, cutting her off. "Just let it go because nothing happened and nothing will ever happen, okay? It'll be luck if he ever speaks to me again. I'm not about to push him for _anything_ and I don't care how cute you think it is."

Kono frowned and murmured, "You're such a child."

"Sorry? What was that? I can't hear you over the only evidence we have," Steve said as he tried to turn the recording up louder.

Kono rolled her eyes and had her attention diverted when her phone vibrated on the table.

She picked it up to find a text message from Chin.

_Danny was here – what happened? _

Kono glanced up at Steve and said, "I'll be back."

He nodded absently.

She left; ready to fill her cousin in on everything, swearing him to secrecy while she was at it, of course.

"Why, what's wrong?" Kono asked after Chin's strange reaction to hearing about Danny's suspension.

"He was here," Chin sighed, "And he didn't tell me that he was off the case. I gave him what I had found, all of the information. No doubt he's working on the case without us as we speak."

"Oh, right…" Kono said, biting her lower lip. She watched Steve through the window and then said, "Cuz, I'm sure that it won't be that big of a deal, I mean you know those two…and Steve knows you and you didn't know, so everything will be alright."

Chin sighed. "Let's hope so. How are things going on your end?"

"Well, I can recite the recording to you, from start to finish, considering how many times he's played it but other than that, nothing. The boss seems to think he'd heard something, or that he's onto something, but even he doesn't know what yet. So basically, we're really nowhere. How about you?"

"Hey, I got you the name of the guy; I'm clearly doing more work here. Let's not interrogate me!"

Kono rolled her eyes and chuckled. "Yeah, yeah. Do you have anything new to report-,"

"I'VE GOT IT! THAT'S IT! KONO! COME IN HERE!"

"What's that?" Chin asked, hearing Steve's shouting from the other end of the line.

"Uh, I think the boss found something," she said, her voice rising with excitement as she hurried back into the room. She put Chin on speaker and asked, "What? What is it?"

"Is that Chin?" Steve asked, his eyes lit up with excitement.

"Yeah, yeah, it is, what is it boss, what did you find?" Kono asked.

"Drills!" he exclaimed.

Kono stared at him, her face now blank. She had no clue what he was on about. "…Great!"

"No, Kono, you don't understand! Drills! There's a faint sound of drills for like zero point five seconds in this recording each time that a door is opened, whenever either Calwell walks in or out, bringing Grace with him. This means that he takes her outside and then brings her back in and the drills that we can hear means construction! Outside of where they are!"

"You managed to hear that from a second of recording?" Chin asked, trying not to sound as surprised as he was.

"I didn't notice it the first few times I heard it," Steve said.

"The first few thousand, you mean," Kono muttered.

"Yeah, I didn't notice, I looked over it mostly because I was trying to pick up hints from what they were saying and trying to figure out if something meant something else, I listened to Grace's voice and if there were any hints being dropped, but I'm sure she was too scared to say anything. I then listened even harder in case I missed something that was said quieter, possibly between them captors but I didn't hear anything. It was only after the first couple of listens that I started paying attention to the background noise and noticed the drilling and all of the people. I'm sure that I heard a faint boat horn in the distance and the drilling accompanied with that…it has to be near a dock somewhere or near a beach. We need to narrow down all of the places that are doing construction near a docking point."

"You want me to narrow down all of the docking points on the island? You realise that we are in Hawaii right?" Chin asked.

"Yeah, but not every dock on the island is getting construction done. They need government approval before they perform any sort of construction or maintenance to the land so look through archives and recent proposals for this type of thing and if we can narrow down the area, by tomorrow, we should be able to get a whole team together for back-up to surround the area to make sure that it goes off without a hitch."

"But he has Grace hostage," said Kono. "We can't guarantee that she's going to be okay by just busting down the door, if we find it, and grabbing her. And plus, this'll scare her if she sees all of the guns and if a shot does go off, which it probably will considering that Calwell is probably armed, we can't guarantee Grace protection. We need to give them what they want."

"But we don't have what they want, Kono," said Steve. "We can't get what they want. This is so far the best way."

"But it's not the safest," Kono argued. "If anything happens to Grace-,"

"It won't."

"—But if it does…think about Danny. That's his daughter."

"I know it's his daughter, Kono, but we don't have any other options!"

"Well, actually…we do," came Chin's voice for the first time since Steve's plan for the next day in order to save Grace.

"…Well?" Steve asked.

Chin explained to the two how there was a drugs bust ten years ago and that all of the money obtained from the bust was locked in a storage room in the HPD after the case went cold. Nobody had touched the money, having no reason to, and that all of that money was basically just sitting there in cash, gathering dust.

Steve said, "Okay, but what about the drugs? He wants all of his drugs back, too and there was a lot of it at the site when we busted in."

"It's white powder," Chin said. "Do you know how many white powders there are out there that look exactly like cocaine? All you have to do is get the packaging right."

"Chin, are you suggesting that we package hundreds of kilos of flour as if they were drugs and hand them over to Calwell?"

"You don't exactly have much of a better choice," said Chin, "Taking the money is a big enough deal. Taking drugs is a whole other ball park. Trust me, bruh, they're not going to notice the difference and you only need it for show. Calwell isn't going to go ripping it open to make sure that that is what he wants. He doesn't have time for that. He won't even get a chance to notice that it's not his – once the switch is made, we go in."

"Okay, but then we need him to call again and negotiate a drop off point," Kono said. "We can't just show up to where he is, he'll know he's surrounded."

"He'll call again," Steve said. "He wants this stuff. He'll definitely call again. If not tonight, then tomorrow. Either way, he'll call. Chin, I still want you to narrow it down where they could be. I want people to scope out the area and start figuring out vantage points for snipers and places where we can block off should there be an escape route for him and to make sure that the immediate neighbours and people in the area are evacuated. We won't have time to do all that if he calls again tomorrow and wants the stuff within a few hours."

"Got it, boss," Chin replied and hung up.

Steve looked at Kono. "You got a couple hundred kilos of flour?"

"I have a kilo or so of icing sugar?" Kono offered.

"Right. You go get that and when you get back, I'll get a few HPD officers to help you pack it all." He lowered his voice as he leaned in and said, "I'll be in touch but around four to five AM, you and I are going in to get that money, okay?"

She nodded and didn't comment on that further, only asking, "What are you going to do now?"

"I have to see Danny."

"You're going to get him back on the team?" Kono asked hopefully.

"No," Steve replied. "Not now at least. And he quit, Kono. But he is…the parent. It'll do well to inform him that we're getting somewhere."

Kono tried to conceal her smirk that appeared as she said, "Why not get him and Rachel together then? They're both the parents."

"…Chin will talk to Rachel. They're divorced; you don't want to get them together considering they'll only argue…you know…yeah."

Steve left the room with Kono calling after him, "Use protection!"

"You're fired!" Steve called back as Kono struggled not to laugh hysterically.


End file.
